Safe in Sound currently offers concerts in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. We work with a talented group of artists based in the capital cities of these states. Each performer has extensive performance experience in the fields of improvisation and sound art/experimental music. Musicians at Safe in Sound have current Working With Children Checks, and will place the utmost focus and care on ensuring that through clear communication all audiences are comfortable, informed and happy throughout the entire process.

Robbie is an innovative Australian drummer and sound artist with an international reputation for bold, sonic exploration. Robbie has been at the forefront of the Australian experimental music scene both as a performer and a curator for over 30 years. After returning from studies in New York, Robbie was inspired to foster a varied experimental music ecosystem in Australia by co-founding and organising the legendary WHAT IS MUSIC? Festival, Australia’s premier annual touring showcase of local and international experimental music from 1994-2012. Since 2010 Robbie has designed and built robotic and kinetic percussion instruments that he still currently performs alongside with today. In 2017 Robbie created the exploratory music concert series specifically for persons with a disability, their families and supporters, called Safe in Sound.

More information: robbieavenaim.com

Jim is a world renowned Flutist and Saxophone player and is regarded as among Australia’s foremost improvisers with musical activity spanning four decades. His emphasis on spontaneity, site-specific work and collaboration has been central to his work. His 2006 and 2008 recordings from the Budawang Mountains for the ABC received an Honorary Prize in the Prix Ars Electronica. In 2006 and 2007 he received a Music Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts to research and develop his concept of ‘meta-instrument.       

More info: https://jimdenley.com/

Laura is a renowned clarinettist, improviser and composer. Laura has a playful approach to music-making, often using tapes, feedback, objects, her voice and various other instruments to extend her sonic palette. Laura also tutors in improvisation at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has extensive experience working in early-childhood music education with organisation Bluebell Music.

More info: lauraaltman.net

 Carolyn is regarded as one of Australia’s most important experimental vocalists who creates new works in the fields of contemporary music and theatre. Carolyn was awarded the 2015 Age Melbourne Music Award for Avant-garde and Experimental music. Her solo vocal works have been presented by International and National festivals, the Melbourne Recital Centre, Sydney Festival, Dark MOFO, The Ian Potter Museum, and Gertrude Contemporary.

More information: carolyn-connors.com

Alon Ilsar is an Australian drummer, composer, sound designer and instrument designer. He is co-designer of a new interface for electronic percussionists called the AirSticks. Alon has completed a PhD in instrument design through the University of Technology, Sydney’s Creativity and Cognition Studios, under the supervision of Andrew Johnston. In 2016, he completed a one-year artist residency at Brooklyn College’s PIMA in New York working on new collaborations with musicians, visual artists and dancers.

More info: https://alonilsar.com/

Nat is a multi-skilled artist and researcher with more than 15 years’ experience across live performance, recording, digital arts, and community arts: a drummer, percussionist, composer and sound artist. Nat works, and has worked, in a wide range of mentoring and teaching roles that both inform and are informed by experiences as a composer and performer, and is involved in a number of community networks and forums that help strengthen the role of new and experimental music throughout different communities. Nat has many years’ experience working in accessible spaces and is currently the Creative Director for the 2021 Victorian Seniors Festival

More information: natgrantmusic.com

Dale is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, instrument builder, installation artist and educator. Since 2008, he worked for Arts Access Victoria Facilitation of art and music workshops for adult artists of all abilities, Avenues education for youth with mental health challenges, The Song Room, teaching percussion, instrument building and sound art to disadvantaged primary school students, mostly refugees. He conducts monthly workshops at The Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital and has presented workshops at The Dwelling up Arts Lab, WA, The 2008 NOW now Festival, The Queensland University of Technology, RMIT School of Design, Charles Darwin University, & The Sustainable Living Festival.

More information: dalegorfinkel.com

Brendan Walls is an interdisciplinary artist, experimental composer and performer. His work utilises a variety of handmade instruments and sound producing sculptural objects, considering psycho-acoustic properties of performance and gallery spaces. With a career spanning more than 20 years Walls has performed extensively in Australia and Overseas, and has extensive experience performing in the disability sector with children and young adults as behavioural therapist and sound artist.

Greg Kingston is regarded as one of Australia’s most important improvisers. Greg Kingston has lived with (Tourettes syndrome) for the last 40 years. He has been creating performances of such energy, humour, sadness, stupidity, shallowness and wisdom that it makes him cry (along with the audience). Greg is Tasmania’s resident musical genius, and one of the great iconoclastic guitarists in improvised music. 

Josten is a Boorloo-based musician best known as an alto saxophonist, composer and field recordist. A co-founder of local arts collective Tone List, Josten has made significant contributions to creative music in Western Australia, most notably as the founder and artistic director of Perth’s premier festival of exploratory music Audible Edge. He passionately believes in teaching and sharing improvised music as a way of making music education more accessible and nourishing, particularly for young people. He is a First Class Honours graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and is a Schenberg Fellow.

More information: jostenmyburgh.com

Eduardo is a Peruvian-Australian musician based in Perth. ​He has a long involvement in community arts. He is coordinator at Catch Music Inc and runs digital media workshops at DADAA (Disability in the arts, Disadvantage in the Arts Australia).  His work has been recognized with West Australian Music Awards on various occasions, and in 2018 was nominated WAM Industry Representative of the Year.

More information: eduardocossio.com 

Annika Moses is a sound artist living and playing on Whadjuk Noongar boodja, in Boorloo (Perth) Western Australia. Her creative practice is a sprawling affair, writing and performing under various contemporary music monikers while maintaining a process-based practice within experimental & sound art worlds. Since 2016 Annika has participated in the Boorloo arts community as an independent artist, organiser and curator, as co-director of local label Tone List, as an artistic collaborator. She has experience working within the community and with children, and always brings generosity and enthusiasm to her work.

More information: annikamoses.com

Robbie is an innovative Australian drummer and sound artist with an international reputation for bold, sonic exploration. Robbie has been at the forefront of the Australian experimental music scene both as a performer and a curator for over 30 years. After returning from studies in New York, Robbie was inspired to foster a varied experimental music ecosystem in Australia by co-founding and organising the legendary WHAT IS MUSIC? Festival, Australia’s premier annual touring showcase of local and international experimental music from 1994-2012. Since 2010 Robbie has designed and built robotic and kinetic percussion instruments that he still currently performs alongside with today. In 2017 Robbie created the exploratory music concert series specifically for persons with a disability, their families and supporters, called Safe in Sound.